Virgin Australia, having taken note that almost no one really wants the middle seat, has come up with a way to reward at least some of those who end up there, with a prize pool of $230,000 Australian dollars in its “Middle Seat Lottery.”
The game is open to members of its Velocity loyalty program, and will award a prize to one traveler a week on Virgin’s domestic network through next April. Prizes include a Virgin Voyages cruise, Platinum Velocity status, tickets to AFL games with return flights, and an outback helicopter pub crawl.
The decision to incentivize the middle seat came after a survey of Velocity members revealed that 62% prefer aisle seats, 35% window and a mere 3% the middle. A separate poll on social media concluded that 6/10 of one percent choose the middle.
